Tied to a tree on Meganisi 2

Doing something for the first time in Emerald can make us a little nervous, particularly if it involves close quarters manoeuvring. So today we set off for our first ‘tying to a tree’ Med mooring adventure with just a little trepidation nibbling away at us.

There are three large bays to choose from on the east side of Meganisi island, we were heading for the middle one as it has had the most recommendations from friends. Seeing other yachts heading in the same direction made us want to speed up and beat them in in case they took the last spot but we needn’t have worried as most carried straight on past.

Decisions, Decisions

The northern arm of Ormos Abelike

Once we got into Ormo Abelike we were faced with a decision of which of the various bays to go in. We’re not good at decisions. In the end our choice was made by considering which direction the forecast strong winds would be from later in the week and going for the best shelter from them. Whilst we dithered making our decision we did lazy circles in the entrance, covering for our dithering by using the space to drop the dinghy.

So, decision one made and bay chosen – the one off to the right. Now where within the bay to tie up? There was a 100m wide space beckoning to us on the outer edge of the bay with a 40m superyacht providing convenient swell protection at the entrance. Plenty of trees on shore to tie to too. Seemed almost too easy so worry why no one else is there when the rest of the bay is busy. Might as well give it a go……

Slowly does It

No wind at all, the weather gods were kind for once. I mucked up the first approach with too tight a turn to straighten up from but second time was much better. Emerald was well behaved and by going slowly in reverse with the helm over to counteract the prop walk we maintained an almost straight line. Dropped the anchor, still deep in over 20m, kept on reversing towards the shore, stopped about a boat length off. All good, still in line.

A successful tying to tree adventure

Colin got in the dinghy, taking our prepared long line, which is 2 lines tied together as our really long lines we don’t want to stuff up being tied round trees. Emerald hardly moved, what a good boat, whilst Colin wrangled the long, stiff, ungainly line around a tree, two times around with a round turn and two half hitches. There were ants swarming the tree just to help make his job more interesting. Once securely tied I could pull it in tight from Emerald, in the end we only needed one of the line lengths. Once Colin was back aboard it was on the bow to tighten up the chain; there seemed like an awful lot of chain coming in, we hoped we hadn’t pulled the anchor out. Then the chain went taut, phew.

Anchor chain tight, stern line tight, all good. Plan to put another line out later. Think of a few ways we can make the process easier next time. Settled down and congratulated ourselves on a job well done and to watch boats with far more crew than us and with bow thruster make a much worse job of it than we did!

Stats and Useful Stuff

• Internet: yes, with our mifi up in the cockpit we had a 3G signal from our Wind SIM.
• Phone signal: yes, with the phone in the cockpit our Vodafone SIM had a couple of signal blobs.
• Water: no
• Bar / restaurant: two tavernas at the head of Ormo Abelike just around the corner. Vathi 15 minutes walk away.
• Supplies: Vathi

Vlicho to Ormo Abelike, Meganisi: 6nm travelled, all under engine. Position: 38 40.34’N:20 47.41’E Weather: dry, sunny and warm with mostly light winds from the south east.

[osm_map_v3 map_center=”38.678,20.741″ zoom=”12″ width=”100%” height=”450″ file_list=”../../../../wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Vlicho2Abeliki.gpx”]